Application Engineer Interview Experience - Riverwoods, Illinois
Process
I applied through LinkedIn on February 13th. I completed the screening round with the recruiter, and it went well.
Later, the recruiter scheduled the first round of interviews, which was entirely technical. Eventually, there were 1+4 rounds. The four rounds included behavioral, architecture, and whiteboard-related questions.
1st round: Microservices, Spring Boot, coding syntax, and basic Java questions (1 hour). 2nd round: The interviewer presented a scenario for me to design the architecture, followed by some basic Java questions in the last 5 minutes (1 hour). 3rd round: Microservices-based and behavioral-based questions (1 hour). 4th round: Whiteboard session. The interviewer gave me a scenario, asked me to design the architecture, posed a few related questions, and requested basic overview code (1 hour). 5th round: Behavioral questions (45 minutes).
Rounds 4 and 5 were on the same day with a 1-hour gap in between.
I still have no idea why I was rejected. I performed well.
Questions
Microservices design patterns related question
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Interview Statistics
The following metrics were computed from 2 interview experiences for the Discover Financial Application Engineer role in Riverwoods, Illinois.
Success Rate
Discover Financial's interview process for their Application Engineer roles in Riverwoods, Illinois is extremely selective, failing the vast majority of engineers.
Experience Rating
Candidates reported having very good feelings for Discover Financial's Application Engineer interview process in Riverwoods, Illinois.
Discover Financial Work Experiences
- 3.0Decent place to workApplication Engineer • Current EmployeeRiverwoods, Illinois, United StatesMay 6, 2025Pros: Overall, this company has treated me well for years. Despite being paid under market, the benefits were great, and the enormous amount of PTO allowed me to live my life to the fullest, enjoying any and all trips I ever wanted to go on without question. When I became ill, I was able to take short-term disability without any questions and was able to return to work like normal.Cons: The company is preparing for the Capital One acquisition. Despite being reassured that nothing will change for the year 2025, they have no additional information to provide to employees. The company is plagued with numerous engineers and managers who do not understand the systems they are in charge of. Code is written inefficiently and mismanaged, with solutions being over-engineered. Managers are unable to grasp what is happening, and you will find yourself having to repeat and re-explain yourself numerous times to get your point or understanding across. There are orgs that aren't as bad as others, but I would avoid the banking org at all costs.
- 4.0Respectful Culture, Slow ChangesApplication Engineer • Current EmployeeRiverwoods, Illinois, United StatesApril 7, 2025Pros: A very nice culture to work with. All managers and coworkers are respectful and value your time.Cons: Sometimes organization is slow-moving with making changes.
- 3.0You Get Out What You Put InApplication Engineer • Current EmployeeRiverwoods, Illinois, United StatesMarch 20, 2025Pros: Extremely flexible work/life balance. Room for growth if you are willing to put in the effort. Middle management is a majority non-technical (this is a pro when you want more money).Cons: Work/Life balance is too flexible; half the employees aren't actually working. (This is a pro if you want to coast). Middle management is a majority non-technical. (This is a con if you expect to get recognized for good engineering work. You have to do the corporate dance and pretend you care to get a raise). "Be nice to everyone all the time no matter what" culture is causing more problems than it is solving. Managers are afraid to confront employees on poor work, etc. Not at all diverse; heavy Indian workforce. (This isn't a problem for me, just an observation).
